Many industries set qualification requirements for electrical components. In the automotive industry, for example, the Automotive Electronics Council sets electrical requirements for automotive electronics with a series of standards such as AEC-Q100. Devices that meet these standards generally provide the robustness needed for functioning in the harsh automotive environment.
With the ever-increasing use of electrical components in the automotive industry, power switches for switching electrical power to the components are prevalent in automotive applications. Such electrical components may include motors, heaters, lamps, valves, magnets, and other electrical actuators.
Among the other requirements set forth in AEC-Q100, the standard states that power switches should be able to withstand more than 100 hours under a permanent short circuit condition. Based on increasing application and customer demands, the desired robustness of power switches in the next product generations may require that the devices withstand 1000 hours or more in a permanent short circuit condition.